Baseball Sunday: Can Nolan Ryan’s kid fix the Astros?

When the Astros used to visit Candlestick Park to play the Giants, Nolan Ryan would bring his kids, who hung out with other players’ kids. There’s a cool picture of Ryan and his oldest son, Reid – taken at the Stick — that I ran down for the featured Baseball Sunday piece.

It accompanies my column on Reid Ryan, now 41, who recently was named president of the Astros. He’s the right guy for one of the toughest jobs in baseball – making the Astros relevant.

He knows the game, having pitched in college and two years in the pros – without anything close to his dad’s velocity.

As Ryan the younger said, “I got the hair. He got the fastball.”

He knows PR. He has a business background, having run minor-league teams. And, of course, being a Ryan in Texas carries a lot of weight.

As always, Baseball Sunday includes the Shea Hey piece (on whether Bruce Bochy is going to make the Mets happy at the All-Star Game) and The Bull Pen (All-Star ballot shows Giants and A’s lacking in homegrown position players compared with the rest of the majors and other stuff).